“Everything is vulnerable to abuse”
Habeck causes controversy at the digital summit
November 21, 2023, 3:48 p.m
Artificial intelligence is experiencing a boom in the technology market. But how should the federal government influence the use of AI? While Economics Minister Habeck is strictly against legal regulation of the basic technology, experts are calling for strict restrictions.
At the federal government’s digital summit, different positions on the regulation of artificial intelligence (AI) clashed hard. While Federal Ministers Robert Habeck and Volker Wissing spoke out decisively against restricting the basic technology, representatives of civil society and experts called for strict legal frameworks not only for specific AI applications, but also for the basic technology.
Matthias Spielkamp, co-founder and managing director of the non-governmental organization AlgorithmWatch, referred to a recent study of the responses of AI software robots to the recent state elections in Hesse and Bavaria: “The systems spat out a lot of nonsense.” In this example, not only would the companies have developed models that could have very negative effects, but the companies would have already brought them to market. The self-regulation of basic technology proposed by the federal government does not meet the challenges posed by AI.
Habeck, on the other hand, defended the federal government’s position of making a distinction between the basic technology and the specific AI application. “Everything is vulnerable to abuse. We can use electricity to kill people and build electric chairs and we can use electricity to power health devices or make access to medicine and education easier and better.”
Warning against too lax regulation
Before you can require a technology to comply with social values, you first have to have this technology, said Habeck. “We have to be careful that regulation doesn’t limit us so much that in the end only Elon Musk remains.” The American tech billionaire founded his AI company xAI in July and recently presented his first AI program “Grok”. Carla Hustedt, head of digital society at Stiftung Mercator, warned against too lax regulation: “We must not take the Chinese or American route just because we are afraid of being left behind.”
In the European Union, crucial negotiations on the new AI Act are currently underway between the European Council, the European Parliament and the European Commission. There should be an agreement by the end of the year. Germany recently agreed with France and Italy on a joint position paper advocating regulation for AI applications. However, when it comes to basic technologies, the three largest EU states want to limit themselves to self-regulation of the industry.